First, this was a temp job, and apparently the guy wants more job security. And, well, here is one other explanation from the wolf range rider’s supervisor:

++Nash said Cunningham wasn’t spending the minimum four days a week tracking wolves and finding out whether they were eating ranchers’ calves – in part because of all the media attention he was getting.++

Not surprising – 15 minutes of fame- reduced to about two because the guy maybe gets caught up in the celebrity of it all, and forgets why he was hired. Easy temptation to be before a camera, rather than in a hot dry brushy draw looking for smelly dead things.